Route 72 extension delayed another year

When Gov. Jodi Rell cut the ribbon on the $63.5 million Route 72 extension project in 2007, she said Bristol has “been waiting for years” for it.
It turns out they’ll have to wait a little longer.
The massive new roadway that construction crews are cutting through Forestville to create was supposed to open in June.
Instead, the state Department of Transportation now anticipates the long-anticipated roadway won’t be done until the fall of 2010.
That’s an extra 16 months of disruption and delay, if the current timetable holds up.
The department said in a statement this month that “significant progress has been made” on the road construction itself, but work on secondary streets and utilities has lagged behind.
According to the department’s monthly report for March, AT&T’s work on conduits is “lagging significantly” and CL&P hasn’t done what’s required either.
The power company apparently had to send some of its crews to Kentucky and New Hampshire over the winter to deal with emergencies there, reducing its ability to focus on the work connected to Route 72.
The new road will run between the end of the expressway in Plainville to Riverside Avenue just south of the railroad bridge on Middle Street.
The New Britain-based Manafort Brothers got the construction contract in August 2007 to carry out the work for nearly $40 million.
Finishing by the late spring of 2009 would require "a pretty aggressive schedule," the former state transportation commissioner, Ralph Carpenter, said at the groundbreaking in the fall of 2007. But, he promised, it would be done.
The new road will feature a sunken, boulevard-type street slicing through a residential section between Route 372 in Plainville and Yarde's Pond. Parts of it will be as much as 17 feet beneath the surrounding terrain.
After that section, the four-lane road will follow the existing right of way on Pine Street before crossing a new Pequabuck River bridge in order to align directly with Riverside Avenue.
Ten intersections with traffic lights are included along the new road.

Here's the DOT's overview page on the project.

*****
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com